Connecting to Workload Balancing

July 18, 2018

After importing the Workload Balancing virtual appliance and running the Workload Balancing Configuration wizard, you must connect the pool you want monitored to Workload Balancing. To do so, use either the Connect to WLB Server dialog box in XenCenter or the xe commands.

Note: The WLB tab appears on the Properties pane after licensing your hosts with XenServer Enterprise Edition or a XenApp/XenDesktop license. For more information about licensing, see About XenServer Licensing.

Prerequisites

To complete the XenCenter procedure that follows, you need the:

IP address or Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) and port of the Workload Balancing virtual appliance.

Credentials for the resource pool (that is, the pool master) you want Workload Balancing to monitor.

Credentials for the account you created on the Workload Balancing appliance. This is often known as the Workload Balancing user account. XenServer uses this account to communicate with Workload Balancing. (You created this account on the Workload Balancing virtual appliance during Workload Balancing Configuration.)

If you want to specify the Workload Balancing virtual appliance’s FQDN when connecting to the Workload Balancing server (that is, in the Connect to WLB Server dialog), you must first manually add its host name to your DNS. If you want to configure Trusted Authority certificates, Citrix recommends specifying either an FQDN or an IP address that does not expire.

When you first connect to Workload Balancing, it uses the default thresholds and settings for balancing workloads. Automatic features, such as Automated Optimization Mode, Power Management, and Automation, are disabled by default.

Important: After Workload Balancing is running for a period of time, if you do not receive optimal placement recommendations, Citrix strongly recommends you evaluate your performance thresholds as described in Evaluating the Effectiveness of Your Optimization Thresholds. It is critical to set the correct thresholds for your environment for Workload Balancing recommendations to be optimal.

To connect to the Workload Balancing virtual appliance

In the Resources pane of XenCenter, select XenCenter > your-resource-pool.

In the Properties pane, click on the WLB tab. Note that the WLB tab appears in the Properties pane after licensing your XenServer hosts.

In the Address box, type the IP address or FQDN of the Workload Balancing server. An example of an FQDN is WLB-appliance-computername.yourdomain.net .

Enter the port number in the Port box. XenServer uses this port to communicate with Workload Balancing.

By default, XenServer connects to Workload Balancing (specifically the Web Service Host service) on port 8012. If you changed the port number during Workload Balancing Configuration, you must enter that port number in the Port box.

Important: Do not change the default port number unless you changed the default port during Workload Balancing Configuration. The port number specified during Configuration, in any firewalls, and in the Connect to WLB Server dialog must match.

In the WLB Server Credentials section, enter the user name (for example, wlbuser) and password that XenServer will use to connect to the Workload Balancing virtual appliance. This must be the account you created during Workload Balancing Configuration. By default, the user name for this account is wlbuser.

In the XenServer Credentials section, enter the user name and password for the pool you are configuring. Workload Balancing will use these credentials to connect to each of the hosts in that pool. To use the credentials with which you are currently logged into XenServer, select the Use the current XenCenter credentials check box. If you have assigned permissions to the account using the Role Based Access Control feature (RBAC), be sure they are sufficient to use Workload Balancing. See Definitions of RBAC roles and permissions.

After connecting to the Workload Balancing appliance, if you want to change the settings for thresholds or the priority given to specific resources, see Editing Workload Balancing Settings.

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